Generally, a refrigerator is an electric appliance including a cabinet and a door filled with a heat insulating material to define a food storage chamber capable of cutting off external heat and configured to keep foods fresh in a range of low temperatures for a long time without spoilage, using a freezing mechanism consisting of an evaporator for absorbing internal heat of the food storage chamber and a heat radiating device for exhausting the collected heat. The range of the low temperatures means the range in which microorganisms are not able to survive or proliferate.
Such a refrigerator is configured of a refrigerator compartment for storing foods in temperature ranges above zero and a freezer compartment for storing foods in temperature ranges below zero. Based on the arrangement of the refrigerator and freezer compartments, the refrigerator may be classified into a top freezer type freezer type, a bottom freezer type and a side by side type. The top freezer type includes a top freezer compartment and a bottom refrigerator compartment. The bottom freezer type includes a bottom freezer compartment and a top refrigerator compartment. The side by side type includes a right freezer compartment and a left refrigerator compartment. A plurality of racks and drawers may be provided in the food storage chamber to allow a user to put or take out the foods stored in the food storage chamber.
A home-bar, an ice maker, s rack or a basket may be mounted in a rear surface of the door provided in the refrigerator and the rear surface of the door is used as an auxiliary storage chamber or functional space recently. In other words, the function of the refrigerator door is not just to open and close the refrigerator or freezer compartment, it is way beyond that. The function of the refrigerator door is as diversified as the door defines the auxiliary storage chamber or supplies cold water and ice-cube.
Moreover, a double-door refrigerator including an auxiliary door coupled to a main door for opening and closing the storage compartment has been released and such a double-door refrigerator is called door-in-door (DID) refrigerator. More specifically, a user opens a main door to use the storage compartment and opens only a sub-door to use a sub-storage compartment in the DID refrigerator.
The sub-storage compartment is provided in a rear portion of the main door and it can mean the storage area partitioned off from the storage compartment by a partition (for example, a home bar case). It is a recent trend to form such the sub-storage area in a substantially entire area, not in a partial area of the main door.
In some implementations, the sub-storage compartment is provided to store not only water or beverages but also other various stored foods the user uses more often. Not one rack or basket but a plurality of racks or baskets may be provided in such the sub-storage compartment. However, the stored goods have diverse heights and in some implementations, the height (vertical length) of the rack or basket is variable.
For that, Korea Patent No. 10-2011-0118955 filed by the present applicant (hereinafter, the prior invention) discloses “Moving Basket” which may be vertically movable in a home bar.
In the prior art, a user can put or take out the foods stored in or from the moving basket through an opening formed in a main door (a food introduction opening of a sub-storage chamber. As occasion demands, the user can adjust the height of the moving basket by moving a lever.
However, the lever provided in the prior invention is located in a position exposed to the user as it is. In other words, the lever is located in an inner portion of the opening in a radial direction and it is difficult to realize a beautiful exterior design. As one example, when the user puts or takes out one or more food stuffs in or from the moving basket, one or more food stuffs happen to interfere with the lever disadvantageously.
More specifically, the lever of the prior invention is located in a lower portion of the moving basket, while projected downward and forward. Accordingly, using a lower basket of the moving basket, containers such as glass bottles might collide against the lever and damage the lever.
Also, it is difficult to vertically move the moving basket of the prior invention along the user's manipulation of the lever.
As one example, the user can move the moving basket upward by applying a force upward while raising both levers. In this instance, the user supports the load of the moving basket only by using the lever only to break the balance of the forces. Accordingly, the moving basket has to be moved upward in a very insecure state.
Similarly, the user can move the moving basket downward by using the load of the moving basket while raising the both levers upward. In this instance, the moving basket has to be moved downward by using only the load of the moving basket, in other words, an empty state of the moving basket. The moving basket might fail to be moved downward smoothly by interference of foreign substances and the like. In case quite heavy foods are kept in the moving basket, the load of the moving basket is supported by only using the lever only to break the balance of the power. Accordingly, the moving basket cannot help being moved downward in a quite insecure state.
In other words, it is disadvantageously difficult in the prior invention for the user to apply a force to the moving basket in a desired direction to move, together with the manipulation of the lever using the hand.